It is a theorem of Bers that any closed hyperbolic surface admits a pants decomposition consisting of curves of bounded length where the bound only depends on the topology of the surface. The question of the quantification of the optimal constants has been well studied and the best upper bounds to date are linear in genus, a theorem of Buser and SeppÃ¤lÃ¤. The goal of this note is to give a short proof of a linear upper bound which slightly improve the best known bound.

We prove that for simple complex finite dimensional
Lie algebras, affine Kac-Moody Lie algebras, the
Virasoro algebra and the Heisenberg-Virasoro algebra,
simple highest weight modules are characterized
by the property that all positive root elements
act on these modules locally nilpotently. We
also show that this is not the case for higher rank
Virasoro and for Heisenberg algebras.

Let $G$ be an infinite discrete group and let $\beta G$ be the
Stone--Äech compactification of $G$. We take the points of $Äta
G$ to be the ultrafilters on $G$, identifying the principal
ultrafilters with the points of $G$. The set $U(G)$ of uniform
ultrafilters on $G$ is a closed two-sided ideal of $\beta G$. For
every $p\in U(G)$, define $I_p\subseteq\beta G$ by $I_p=\bigcap_{A\in
p}\operatorname{cl} (GU(A))$, where $U(A)=\{p\in U(G):A\in p\}$. We show
that if $|G|$ is a regular cardinal, then $\{I_p:p\in U(G)\}$ is the
finest decomposition of $U(G)$ into closed left ideals of $\beta G$
such that the corresponding quotient space of $U(G)$ is Hausdorff.

In this article, we establish a new atomic decomposition for $f\in L^2_w\cap H^p_w$,
where the decomposition converges in $L^2_w$-norm rather than in the distribution sense.
As applications of this decomposition, assuming that $T$ is a linear
operator bounded on $L^2_w$ and $0

Let $X$ and $Y$ be Banach spaces isomorphic
to complemented subspaces of each other with supplements $A$ and
$B$. In 1996, W. T. Gowers solved the Schroeder--Bernstein (or
Cantor--Bernstein) problem for Banach spaces by showing that $X$ is not
necessarily isomorphic to $Y$. In this paper, we obtain a necessary
and sufficient condition on the sextuples $(p, q, r, s, u, v)$ in
$\mathbb N$
with $p+q \geq 1$, $r+s \geq 1$ and $u, v \in \mathbb N^*$, to provide that
$X$ is isomorphic to $Y$, whenever these spaces satisfy the following
decomposition scheme
$$
A^u \sim X^p \oplus Y^q, \quad
B^v \sim X^r \oplus Y^s.
$$
Namely, $\Phi=(p-u)(s-v)-(q+u)(r+v)$ is different from zero and $\Phi$
divides $p+q$ and $r+s$. These sextuples are called Cantor--Bernstein
sextuples for Banach spaces. The simplest case $(1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1)$
indicates the well-known PeÅczyÅski's decomposition method in
Banach space. On the other hand, by interchanging some Banach spaces
in the above decomposition scheme, refinements of
the Schroeder--Bernstein problem become evident.

Let $v \ge k \ge 1$ and $\lam \ge 0$ be integers. A \emph{block
design} $\BD(v,k,\lambda)$ is a collection $\cA$ of $k$-subsets of a
$v$-set $X$ in which every unordered pair of elements from $X$ is
contained in exactly $\lambda$ elements of $\cA$. More generally, for a
fixed simple graph $G$, a \emph{graph design} $\GD(v,G,\lambda)$ is a
collection $\cA$ of graphs isomorphic to $G$ with vertices in $X$ such
that every unordered pair of elements from $X$ is an edge of exactly
$\lambda$ elements of $\cA$. A famous result of Wilson says that for a
fixed $G$ and $\lambda$, there exists a $\GD(v,G,\lambda)$ for all
sufficiently large $v$ satisfying certain necessary conditions. A
block (graph) design as above is \emph{resolvable} if $\cA$ can be
partitioned into partitions of (graphs whose vertex sets partition)
$X$. Lu has shown asymptotic existence in $v$ of resolvable
$\BD(v,k,\lambda)$, yet for over twenty years the analogous problem for
resolvable $\GD(v,G,\lambda)$ has remained open. In this paper, we settle
asymptotic existence of resolvable graph designs.